Abstract:The application of leaching process to extracting Mn from a low-grade manganese ore was investigated using a software based design of experiments. Four main parameters, i.e. sulfuric acid concentration, oxalic acid concentration, time and temperature were considered in a central composite response surface design. The recoveries of Mn and Fe were selected as response of design. The optimum conditions under which the Mn and Fe recoveries were the highest and the time and temperature were the lowest were determined using statistical analysis and analysis of variance (ANOVA). The results showed that Mn and Fe recoveries were 93.44% and 15.72% under the optimum condition, respectively. Also, sulfuric acid concentration was the most effective parameter affecting the process. The amounts of sulfuric and oxalic acid were obtained to be 7% and 42.50 g/L in optimum condition and the best time and temperature were 65 min and 63 °C.

Key words: response surface methodology; leaching; manganese; optimization; modeling